Partition systems are employed to isolate portions of a building or room, by serving as a barrier to dust, noise, light, odors, and the like. In construction zones, partitions are useful for protecting a clean area from a work area, for example, protecting an area where furniture and rugs are temporarily stored from an area where wood floors are being refinished.
Workers at construction sites often use rudimentary techniques for installing partitions. Some simply nail, screw, or staple a curtain or partition material to the floor, ceiling, and abutting walls, resulting in damage to their surfaces. Others tape, or otherwise adhere, a curtain or plastic sheet to the walls and ceilings. The tape usually fails to stick, but if it does stick, as the tape is removed, paint can pull off with the tape, or adhesive is left behind.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,469, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a partition mount system that addresses these limitations. This system offers the advantage of accommodating standard extension poles, for example, painter's poles, or telescoping painter's poles, with standard threads, and is compatible with a variety of commercially-available curtain or drape materials, for example plastic and cloth sheeting, and the like. The disclosed system is a “clean” system designed to be installed and removed without damaging or otherwise marking the ceiling, floor or walls in the construction zone. Assembly is easy and fast and can be accomplished by a single individual.
In one embodiment of the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,469, a plastic mount, or jack, includes a spring-loaded plunger to which a mounting head is attached. The jack is mounted to a top end of a standard painter's pole at a threaded interface. While this system is durable, easy-to-use, and reliable, the jack could be considered by some to be top-heavy at times, especially when mounted to a relatively long pole. In addition, the jack could be considered by some to be relatively bulky during shipping and distribution.